The Brave Bartender
by Karalena Cullen
Summary: The only thing truly that had changed was that after hundreds of years, he had achieved what he had spent the better part of a millenia in attempting to achieve, only to see it all lying in blood at his feet.


_"Every artist has a story you know..." _

_"And what do you suppose his story is?" _

_"He's... angry... dark, doesn't feel safe, and doesn't know what to do about it. Wishes he could control his demons instead of having his demons controlling him. He's lost. Alone... or I'm just an overzealous psyche major, sorry." _

_"No... I think you were probably right the first time." _

Her words reverberated hollowly through to the depths of his very soul. If he even had a soul after all this time. Centuries worth of soul-less choices.

What did it matter? Truly? That old adage about how a leopard can't change his spots. It was fallacious. Pure and simple. Klaus may have remained throughout the centuries just as he was, just as he always had been. Driven by pain. Driven by a lack of belonging. That's what it all came down to in the end.

Even those closest to him, who claimed to understand, could never fathom just how deeply it consumed him. The alienation had always felt and always would. There was no one on this earth, not even his beloved brother and sister who could truly empathize. While they had always had each other, Klaus had still always remained… separate. In his own private loneliness.

After ages of searching for what Klaus had hoped, what he had silently prayed would be the solution to his loneliness, he had finally achieved what he had sought out to do. Only to discover that he felt even more apart than ever. While his hybrids might have shared his supernatural duplicity, they could never share his pain. Even their loyalty to him was nothing but a farce. Forced through the blood magic of the sire bond. It … wasn't enough.

Not that destroying them still hadn't elicited in him deep feelings of … loss? Of overwhelming grief. Leaving behind a gaping hole that had always been there, and not even they had been able to fill. It was just all such a _waste_!

So perhaps now would be as good a time as any for the leopard to change his spots. It wasn't that Klaus was incapable, he just failed to see the point. He could pretend all he liked. He could fool the world but in the end, the real fool would only be himself.

The only thing truly that had changed was that after hundreds of years, he had achieved what he had spent the better part of a millenia in attempting to achieve, only to see it all lying in blood at his feet.

But now… with the news from the witches that he was to be a father, a _real, true father_, he had possibly been afforded a new possibility that he never would have even been capable of conceiving of. This time around he stood too much of the already nothing that he had left to lose.

It had to be a trick. His mind boggled. It wasn't as though that little wolf girl was the only _bitch_ he'd ever slept with throughout the many long years of his existence. You just didn't live as long as he had and then suddenly, miraculously discover that it was possible to procreate without the use of blood or sorcery. The ability to _naturally _father a child.

But if it was true?

This child could mean a new beginning. New possibilities. A legacy that didn't necessarily begin here with this particular child. A legacy that might have been started long ago. Other times, other places. Other children? And with these children the keys to possibly purging his demons for good.

He had to know for sure. The drive was so strong now. Overpowering to the point that drawing breath was almost painful. The tight, burning rock in his chest nearly crushing- bringing him to his knees. How many possibilities could there be? How many potential children, _his_ very own children might there be? Even one child… but before he could find his peace he had to know if there were any more. Had to know how like _him_ this child or other children of his could be. Would they be set apart from all the rest just as he always had been? Existing between the worlds, half in the world of vampire, half in the world of the beast? Or would they draw mostly from their mothers? Klaus couldn't get his hopes up too far. Afterall, the witch had told him that this particular child was only possible because of the part of him that had been born of the wolves.

Klaus drew the strength to rise from his knees and brush the gravel and the dust from his hands in this new purpose. To go back. To search all the places he had ever encountered other wolves. He knew the possibilities of finding other children were slim to none. He wasn't a fool. He realized that there was one variable that entered into the present that hadn't been there in the past. That was the fact that it was only recently that he'd broken the binding spell that had locked out that werewolf side of himself. But just because he'd been unable to utilize that power, didn't mean that he wasn't who he had always been. A child, conceived from a powerful bloodline of the wolves, and made immortal by his mother, a witch, who then bound his original gifts from him.

So it could be possible. And so Klaus would leave this city. For now. He would seek them all out and in time, he would return… To either build his new legacy, or to put it all to rest at last. Because wasn't that what true immortality was all about? Leaving something behind of yourself to outlast for generations to come. Maybe Klaus would have his beautiful ending after all. And then again, perhaps he never would. Perhaps demons weren't afforded happy endings unless they ripped them out from life themselves.


End file.
